Recruiting MBA Students: 3 Great Ways Faculty Can Boost Your Plans

MBA enrollment across the country is down. And this is likely going to continue as we endure the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, there are still many adults looking to reach their career goals by returning to school.

While there are many strategies for boosting enrollment for your MBA programs, below are three ways you can rely on faculty to help recruit new students.

Turn Them into Content Creators

MBA students tend to be ambitious, curious self-learners. This means that content marketing can be a very effective way to draw them to your program. If prospective students see that your institution is home to thought-leaders in the world of business, they’ll begin to trust your institution. Then, when they’re ready to consider enrolling in an MBA program—be that in a month or two years—they’ll already have a favorable connection with your school.

Actionable Ideas

• Consider producing a podcast where you interview a member of your business faculty about certain topics related to marketing, finance, or international business development. You could highlight keynote speeches and talks, as Biola University has done on its YouTube page. You could post business-related webinars, as Santa Clara University has done on a well-designed landing page. Keep in mind, though, that content like this should also be integrated into a broader promotional strategy (email campaigns, social media, etc.) to increase the probability that prospective students will see it.

• Ask faculty to write thought-leadership articles (or have a writer interview your faculty and write them). Hamline University put together a timely Q&A article about marketing success during a global pandemic. Someone simply interviewed a faculty member and converted it into a piece of content to demonstrate thought leadership. Something like this can be valuable because speaking with a faculty member for 20 minutes over the phone requires little of their time (much less than having them actually write a piece themselves).

Faculty-produced content doesn’t always have to be deep and robust. Even a simple list of faculty’s favorite business publications or podcasts can provide value. While this content is better if combined with original thought-leadership content in your marketing strategy overall, something like this can ensure you’re producing a good mix of content that doesn’t require too much time and effort.

Connect Faculty with Admitted Students

Your business faculty are likely busy. This is especially true if they are still working in the business world (as many do). While you don’t want to burden them too much, you can still invite business faculty to play a critical role in your MBA recruitment strategy—especially for admitted students who haven’t yet enrolled. Having a conversation or an email exchange with a faculty member can be extremely persuasive for an admitted student—tipping them over to your school.

It’s true that students can always reach out to faculty on their own. But it’s a whole other example of marketing hospitality for you to take the initiative and connect an admitted student to a specific faculty member.

For example, sending an email introducing an admitted student who is interested in non-profit marketing to a faculty member with that particular expertise sends a huge message. It proves that your school views admitted students as unique individuals—not a number or dollar amount. And it reveals your school’s commitment to making sure students have as much information as possible to make the best decision for them.

Yes, it requires time, effort, and planning to sift through admitted students and try to connect them with appropriate faculty (and, again, you need to be mindful of faculty’s time). But the personalized effort can go a long way in converting interested students to enrolled students.

Don’t Neglect Faculty Pages—Prospective Students Read Them!

The “experienced faculty with real-world experience” idea is used on nearly every MBA website—and that’s fine. But only if you’re backing up the statement with reasonably robust and informative faculty pages. The content on these pages should reveal what makes your professors unlike the faculty at any other school.

Actionable Ideas

• While listing basic, “table-stakes” info is a given (education, work experience, published books, etc.), a page like this is not often the most engaging or user friendly. Pepperdine University has done a good job of providing this necessary faculty information in a format much more inviting to navigate. They've added tabs that visitors can toggle between (such as “Award” or “Research”) for further information about a specific faculty member. Wheaton University has done something similar to boost the effectiveness of these pages. Creative presentation allows prospective students to access relevant info while not cluttering the page with one long roll of content.

• How about making the faculty bio pages on your site feel a bit more personable? Have faculty answer questions such as: What do they love about business? What do they enjoy most about teaching at your school? The more these pages can feel unique—and students are able to get a real sense of the individual faculty member—the more friendly and appealing your MBA program will likely be to them. On Seattle Pacific's faculty pages, for example, the school features a “Why I Teach at SPU” badge at the right of the page to provide more than just the basic and standard info about faculty.

If you can develop a system where faculty are trained on updating their pages with new content, or better yet, where they can submit updates to a centralized web communication employee, you will also ensure that this personalized content is kept current. It may be helpful to regularly meet with faculty and/or the dean to express why it’s important to give prospective students a detailed and robust account of each MBA faculty member on your website.

The good news in working with MBA faculty is that—as business-minded individuals—they understand the importance of marketing strategy. Make the most of this built-in team of pros!